Bathrooms’ Long Trek - Wall Street Journal - WSJ.com(Excerpt)
Bathrooms and other beach infrastructure along the public sand on Staten Island, Coney Island and the Rockaways, like most other coastal structures, became wrecks under superstorm Sandy’s floodwaters. With beach season now just a month away, city officials are racing to restore restrooms, lifeguard towers and maintenance sheds in time for the beaches to reopen.
The solution: bring prefabricated facilities to the boardwalks for about $2 million each.
But the unwieldy dimensions of these new buildings will turn their migration into a slow-motion race in which nearly three-dozen units will lumber to the city from a factory in Berwick, Pa. In total, the process will require three weeks of multi-state trips at speeds as low as 5 miles per hour, weaving through traffic, negotiating bridges and weaving around red tape.
“It’s just going to take a long time,” said Cristin Burtis, head of the Office of Citywide Event Coordination and Management.
